Love this club

Wolves midfielder Hunt hits out at Ireland critics

Wolves midfielder Stephen Hunt has launched an attack on the Republic of Ireland's critics.

Hunt's response was withering.

He said: "When we qualified for the first World Cup, [goalkeeper] Packie Bonner couldn't get the ball far enough down the pitch.

"Our style of play has developed since then because we no longer hit it as high as we can. We do have a direct style of play, but we have good effective players at it. It's a bit of a myth, really, and we have just to get on with it.

"It can come across sometimes from the media that we don't have a fancy style of play, but we never had, we never, ever had. We had Liam Brady, who was talented, but apart from that, you tell me who has been Ronaldo or Messi in the last 20 years for Ireland?

"There is no-one been that good. [Jason] McAteer - good player, works hard, but no Messi or Ronaldo.